Heartstrings
by AlwaysCastle
Summary: She slept soundly, no longer plagued by the evils that once lurked there. For there were better things awaiting her in the waking hours, and in her dreams, and she awoke with this new sense of wonder an enlightenment.


**Song challenge given by kimmiesjoy One song. One play all the way through. No arguments... first song ONLY! BE FAIR!_  
_Song: _ She and Him - If you can't sleep _**

* * *

_**Heartstrings **_

Her eyes fluttered beneath her eyelids, moving subtly against the inner darkness. But she slept soundly, no longer plagued by the evils that once lurked there. For there were better things awaiting her in the waking hours, and in her dreams, and she awoke with this new sense of wonder an enlightenment.

This time, as she rolled over onto her side, and opened her eyes, she was met with a sight so real, she knew that this was not a dream. She had dreamed many times of him, and had always opened her eyes to an empty bed.

No this time, as a smile spread across her face, she reached out tentatively, and pressed the tips of her fingers ever so gently, against the side of his face. He took in a breath, exhaling the hot air from his nose as she danced those fingers across the angles of his face, feeling the air against her skin, making him even more real as she slid down to the valley of his cheek.

And he slept through it.

The steady prodding as she continued down his chin, his jaw, to his jugular, feeling his pulse beat against her flesh before she skirted past it to his clavicle. Further until she reached his chest There, she laid her hand flat, palm flush with the beating of his heart.

Her own heart sang out to his, coinciding with his every melodic thrum. She closed her eyes, moving closer until her face rested partially on his pillow, and just listened. A soft hum escaped her when she heard it, the twang and padder of two hearts strung out on the same string. She plucked it further, taking his hand resting on the side of him, and bringing it up to settle back over his heart. She squeezed it, lacing it with her own, and just watched him sleep.

The whoosh of air from his lungs, joined the chorus of her heart and his. She continued to hum softly every now and then, her eyes darting from his face. There she saw how he dreamed. His face still and yet his eyes would shift, circling and moving back and forth around and she wondered what he was dreaming about.

It couldn't have been bad, for he was still and calm, even the wrinkles at his eyes were a little more smooth than usual, and she reached out again with her other hand to feel them. as if to soak the life so evident there, into herself. It is the wrinkles, and the lines of our face that show how we have truly lived, and she wanted to be a part of it.

A part of _everything _him.

Her smile never left her face as she let her hand drop again, now focusing on her other one laced with his, rising and falling as he breathed.

The sun was barely up yet, and the room was cast in shadows. But she could see him as clear as day. Kate watched so long, that she got to see the sun ever so slowly peek through the curtains and make it's way across the room.

It was as if seeing everything in slow motion. The brightening of the sun, the way it pursued the shadows, the darkness for which she had once been lost. It was pivotal, this steady pace, the light descending on them, on him, as he slept and dreamed so peacefully.

She didn't know how long she laid there, watching the sun chase away every last fear, but when it reached his face, it was as if, the universe was trying to tell her something.

Kate sat up, resting her weight on one elbow and traced the lines of his face with her eyes. Half in shadow, the other in light. She couldn't see it before...or perhaps she hadn't been looking, but even in darkness, he still looked so...serene, and carefree.

Nothing she had ever seen before, at least not like this. Like this, he was unhindered, guiltless and no longer hiding. It was as though, she was witnessing the deflation of his inner battles, the ones she saw him fighting with the night before, and had finally given into and let go. He had won, it seemed, or maybe he realized, as she did, that they no longer mattered anymore.

There are far more important things then the fight. That we should not always be afraid of what lies there in the dark, or waiting for us in our dreams.

There was always a light.

Kate just needed help to see it.

And as the sun peaks at the tip of his nose, gliding up and over until it shines directly into his eye, he awakens.

She almost wants the laugh, the way he swats at his face as if to ward off a laser light. An annoyance until he finally turns over, his nose nearly brushing against hers. Their joined hands slide down his body, and thud lightly against the mattress between them, but she doesn't let go. Instead, she drags them to her, resting her chin atop them, and closing her eyes, pretending sleep.

He's watching her, she can feel it. That tingling of her skin, and that full body awareness when those brilliant blues rest on her. She knows. She's always known when he's watching, that she will never tell.

But it's his touch, she has yet to grow accustomed to, and she nearly flinches when she feels his fingers at her brow. She tries her best to stay still. Her lips wanting to give her away as they twitch at the corners, her eyes dancing underneath her eyelids. But she manages, when those fingers of his, the ones she's often wanted to see at work, watch them type across his keyboard and see the magic they create.

They create such magic even now, his soft caress, the slow rub of his fingertips as they rise upwards instead of down like hers had, was it? hours ago.. she thinks.. she lost track of time, mesmerized by the way he had slept, the way he dreamed...

A sigh escaped her when his fingers spread out, weaving into her hair and smoothing it away from her forehead. She shivered, and lost the battle as her lip slipped in between her teeth and she bit down.

He chuckled, low in his throat but did not stop the ease of his fingers at her scalp. The sound elicited a tightness in her abdomen, and a flutter in her heart.

"Mmm." She hummed, letting her eyes open, and she blinked a few times, not realizing how close he actually was.

He said nothing, moving his hand back down to cup her cheek, and she moved into his touch, their noses brushing. Kate smiled, rubbing her nose purposely against his, and then moving closer still until her lips pressed against the corner of his mouth.

With his hand still on her cheek, his other squeezed hers, and the released it to cup the other side of her face, bringing her in for a deeper kiss. She met him, more than half way, in a languid slide of lips and tongue until she moaned into the space once filled with the music of their hearts.

This was all new, for her, for them.. and yet... so familiar.

Their hearts had known it all along. They had just been waiting for their minds to catch up.


End file.
